The Investigatory Powers Bill, which has been debated in the
Parliamentary Public Bill Committee this week, will go back to the
House of Commons for report stage shortly. The Bill contains a
range of surveillance powers available to the security services,
police and other public bodies. During the Public Bill Committee
sessions and in response to Keir Starmer MP, the Minister for
Security at the Home Office, John Hayes MP, said: "while we have
made considerable progress in considering and dealing with the
issue of the legal profession, there may be more work to do in
respect of journalists".

The Bill currently lacks safeguards for journalists, legal
representatives and civil society. My union, the National Union of
Journalists (NUJ), has been campaigning together with the Bar
Council and Law Society to highlight the serious concerns we have
about the safety and confidentiality of sources, whistleblowers and
individuals seeking legal representation.

The NUJ was compelled to speak out about intrusive investigatory
powers when in September 2014 it was revealed the police had
secretly accessed the mobile phone records and the call data from
the newsdesk of a national newspaper. This police action was an
abuse of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and it
bypassed existing safeguards for the protection of sources set out
under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. With previous
legislation journalists are notified when the authorities want to
access their material and sources, and journalists have the ability
to defend their sources in an open court with the chance to
challenge and appeal the application and decisions.

The right to protect journalistic sources has been recognised by
international law. It has been recognised by the United Nations,
the Council of Europe, the Organisation of American States and the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The European
Court of Human Rights said in several of its decisions that it's a
key element of freedom of expression. In addition, the NUJ has
historically secured legal precedent on the protection of sources
in the Goodwin v UK 1996 case. The British government have now
decided to sweep these existing safeguards off the table and use a
secretive back-door route to access journalistic communications and
sources. At the moment their outrageous justification is that
journalists themselves are not the "owners" of their own
communications data.

Fundamentally we believe there is no difference between the
authorities asking for a journalists' physical contacts book or
footage and their telephone and communications records. The effect
on journalists and sources is exactly the same and the same legal
safeguards should cover both.

Our robust opposition in response to the current proposals in the
Bill are based on the union's long-standing ethical principles. The
NUJ code of conduct was first established in 1936 and it is the
only ethical code for journalists written by journalists. The code
is part of the union rules; members support the code and strive to
adhere to its professional principles. The code includes the
following clause: "A journalist protects the identity of sources
who supply information in confidence and material gathered in the
course of her/his work."

We remain determined to amend the Bill and will continue to
actively campaign to ensure that safeguards for journalistic
communications, materials, sources and activities are all respected
in the UK. Safeguards should apply across the different
investigatory powers and not just apply to communications data when
the authorities are intending to identify a source. The media
should be able to challenge and appeal investigatory powers
requests and decisions - so that the public interest and press
freedom arguments are put forward and considered.

The cross-party parliamentary joint committee when examining the
first draft of Bill said "protection for journalistic privilege
should be fully addressed by way of substantive provisions on the
face of the bill ".

Whilst the Bill passes through parliament, the NUJ will do
everything possible to ensure protections are added. At the moment
the Bill includes extremely intrusive and unnecessary surveillance
powers that trample over the very principles of journalism and
press freedom.

Michelle Stanistreet is the elected general secretary of
the National Union of Journalists (UK and Ireland). The National
Union of Journalists (NUJ) is the representative voice for
journalists and media workers across the UK and
Ireland.

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The NUJ is the representative voice for journalists and media
workers across the UK and Ireland. The union was founded in 1907
and has 30,000 members representing staff, students and freelances
working at home and abroad in the broadcast media, newspapers, news
agencies, magazines, books, public relations, communications,
online media and as photographers. The union is not affiliated to
any political party and has a cross-party parliamentary group.